
−
- Medium:
- Woodblock print
- Source:
- Waseda University
- Image courtesy of
- Waseda University
Description
Without a confirmed title, the precise subject of this Kawanabe Kyosai woodblock print remains unidentified. Kyosai's imagery characteristically oscillates between the comic and the macabre, the sacred and the profane, often within a single composition. He was notably influenced by his early training under Utagawa Kuniyoshi, whose own prints of monsters, warriors, and supernatural scenes left a permanent mark on Kyosai's visual imagination. The Western artist Josiah Conder, who studied painting with Kyosai in the 1880s, documented his teacher's ability to produce finished compositions rapidly and from memory — a spontaneity that translates into the energetic line quality distinguishing Kyosai's prints from more labored contemporaries. This print is executed in the standard polychrome woodblock technique on washi.
More Prints by Kawanabe Kyosai

Tenpôzan in Osaka: Viewing Children's Sumo (Naniwa Tenpôzan kodomo sumô shôran), from the series Scenes of Famous Places along the Tôkaidô Road (Tôkaidô meisho fûkei), also known as the Processional Tôkaidô (Gyôretsu Tôkaidô), here called Tôkaidô
1863
Woodblock print

Kyosai, Royal Academy, London, FREE DOMESTIC SHIPPING
2022
Original Museum Lithographic Exhibition Poster

from the series One Hundred Pictures by Kyôsai (Kyôsai hyakuzu)
Woodblock print

Gontazaka, from the series Scenes of Famous Places along the Tôkaidô Road (Tôkaidô meisho fûkei), also known as the Processional Tôkaidô (Gyôretsu Tôkaidô), here called Tôkaidô meisho no uchi
Woodblock print
Frequently Asked Questions
− was created by Kawanabe Kyosai (河鍋暁斎).